Do You Believe and Obey the Gospel?

1Corinthians 3:16-17
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”

The apostle Paul tells these believers:

1.) They are the temple of God.
2.) That the Spirit of God dwells in them.

Then Paul warns them if they defile themselves, God will destroy them.

(Revelation 2 & 3 are examples of this.)

Jesus teaches us what defiles us.

Matthew 15:18-20
“But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.”

To defile means to sin.
Sin starts in our heart.
Our “hearts” are the thoughts of our mind.

Jesus gave us a few examples of things that defile us, they are sins against God’s laws.

The apostle Paul also gives believers a list and warns us that people who do these things, whether or not they are born again believers with the Holy Spirit or unbelievers, they will not inherit the kingdom of God based on their actions. They will not have eternal salvation if these sins are not confessed and repented of.

1Corinthians 6:8-10
“Nay, ye do wrong,
and defraud,
and that your BRETHREN.

Know ye not that THE UNRIGHTEOUS shall not inherit the kingdom of God?

Being defiled is further defined as being unrighteous. Then he says the unrighteous will not inherit eternal life. He is warning the brethren who have the Holy Spirit of these things, not unbelievers.

This means that the brethren who have the Holy Spirit can commit a sin and become defiled and unrighteous and can lose their eternal salvation because of what they do. He warns them not to be deceived into thinking they can sin without the death penalty reapplying to them. That death penalty is body and spirit, not just bodily death.

Here’s a second witness:

Galatians 5:19-21
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past,

that they which do such things
shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

The greatest danger the churches are facing today is that many are deceived about these facts of the gospel message. Paul says don’t be deceived.

THE DECEIVED CHURCH:

1.) Doesn’t acknowledge they are under the obligation to obey God’s laws because,

2.) They believe God’s moral laws were ended at the cross “nailed to the cross”,

3.) This causes them to believe they can’t sin anymore, or that:

4.) They believe there is no longer condemnation to them if they walk after the flesh (sin) and produce the fruit of the flesh (sin).

5.) Because of their belief that the moral law and the death penalty law no longer applies to them; when in reality they actually do sin, they don’t acknowledge it, confess or repent of that sin because they falsely assume they are still clean, righteous, saved and not condemned by their sin.

That is eternally deadly.

That is Satan’s greatest work of deception and he certainly doesn’t want you thinking and figuring these things out.

Please. Disappoint. Him.

The truth of the gospel under the New Covenant is that Jesus taught us to pray the Lord’s Prayer which contains the laws of the heavenly sanctuary.

• daily confession of sins,

• daily repentance from sinning,

• asking for the forgiveness of our past sins and forgiving others,

• asking for the renewing our minds by the renewal of the Holy Spirit.

“Thy kingdom come” is asking for the renewal of God’s Holy Spirit within us. Asking for “our daily bread” is asking for God’s word to 1.) cleanse and renew our minds 2.) to feed our spirit and 3.) give us life. “Thy will be done” is us actively voicing our commitment and our will to obey God’s laws. “In earth as it is in heaven” means that we are telling God that we agree with His government in heaven where His Holy angels obey Him and we want to do the same thing with our earthly bodies that He made from the earth. This is righteousness by faith. This is the process of God’s covenant of salvation. This covenant is our hope that we have in Jesus our Savior and our mediator, our high priest in heaven because it carries all the promises including the Holy Spirit and the rest of our inheritance in the LORD.

The only way it’s possible for these things to be done and succeed is if we acknowledge and understand that God’s laws are still in effect and binding on us today for both believers and unbelievers. We are all under God’s moral laws, authority and governorship (rulership).

Don’t be deceived.

1John 2:1-2
“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

1John 1:8-10
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.”